สดุดี 35:14 วิจารณ์

David, in this psalm, appeals to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth against his enemies that hated and persecuted him. It is supposed that Saul and his party are the persons he means, for with them he had the greatest struggles. I. He complains to God of the injuries they did him; they strove with him, fought against him (Psa 35:1), persecuted him (Psa 35:3), sought his ruin (Psa 35:4, Psa 35:7), accused him falsely (Psa 35:11), abused him basely (Psa 35:15, Psa 35:16), and all his friends (Psa 35:20), and triumphed over him, (Psa 35:21, Psa 35:25, Psa 35:26). II. He pleads his own innocency, that he never gave them any provocation (Psa 35:7, Psa 35:19), but, on the contrary, had studied to oblige them (Psa 35:12-14). III. He prays to God to protect and deliver him, and appear for him (Psa 35:1, Psa 35:2), to comfort him (Psa 35:3), to be nigh to him and rescue him (Psa 35:17, Psa 35:22), to plead his cause (Psa 35:23, Psa 35:24), to defeat all the designs of his enemies against him (Psa 35:3, Psa 35:4), to disappoint their expectations of his fall (Psa 35:19, Psa 35:25, Psa 35:26), and, lastly, to countenance all his friends, and encourage them (Psa 35:27), IV. He prophesies the destruction of his persecutors (Psa 35:4-6, Psa 35:8). V. He promises himself that he shall yet see better days (Psa 35:9, Psa 35:10), and promises God that he will then attend him with his praises (Psa 35:18, Psa 35:28). In singing this psalm, and praying over it, we must take heed of applying it to any little peevish quarrels and enmities of our own, and of expressing by it any uncharitable revengeful resentments of injuries done to us; for Christ has taught us to forgive our enemies and not to pray against them, but to pray for them, as he did; but, 1. We may comfort ourselves with the testimony of our consciences concerning our innocency, with reference to those that are any way injurious to us, and with hopes that God will, in his own way and time, right us, and, in the mean time, support us. 2. We ought to apply it to the public enemies of Christ and his kingdom, typified by David and his kingdom, to resent the indignities done to Christ's honour, to pray to God to plead the just and injured cause of Christianity and serious godliness, and to believe that God will, in due time, glorify his own name in the ruin of all the irreconcilable enemies of his church, that will not repent to give him glory. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 35 A Psalm of David. This psalm seems to have been written by David, when he was persecuted by Saul; and when many false charges were brought against him by his courtiers; and when he was the scorn and derision of the people; the subject of it is pretty much of the same kind with the seventh psalm, and might be written about the same time that was, and on the same occasion; and it may be applied to the church and people of God in like cases. There is a passage in it, Psa 35:19, which our Lord seems to refer to and apply to himself, Joh 15:25; and some interpret the whole of it concerning him. The Arabic version calls it a prophecy of the incarnation; though there does not appear any thing in it applicable to that.

I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother,.... Meaning either Saul or Doeg the Edomite, or some such evil man; somewhat like this he says of Ahithophel, Psa 41:9; and Arama thinks he is meant here; as Christ of Judas, whom he called friend, when he came to betray him; and who not only ate with him at table of his bread, but was steward of his family, and carried the bag, Mat 26:50; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother; or as a mother that mourneth for her son, as Jarchi interprets it, whose affections are very strong; and thus Christ wept over Jerusalem, and had a tender concern for and sympathy with the Jews, his implacable enemies, and wept over them, and prayed for them, Luk 19:41.

"As a Neighbour, as our Brother, so I pleased Him: as one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled myself" [Psalm 35:14]. Now looks He back to His Own Body: let us now look to this. When we rejoice in prayer, when our mind is calmed, not by the world's prosperity, but by the light of Truth: (who perceives this light, knows what I say, and he sees and acknowledges what is said, "As a Neighbour, as our Brother, so I pleased Him"): even then our soul pleases God, not placed afar off, for, "In Him," says one, "we live and move and have our being," [Acts 17:28] but as a Brother, as a Neighbour, as a Friend. But if it be not such that it can so rejoice, so shine, so approach, so cleave unto Him, and sees itself far off thence, then let it do what follows, "As one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled Myself. As our Brother, so I pleased Him," said He, drawing near; "As one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled Myself," said He, removed and set afar off....Did not Peter draw near, when he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God"? And yet the same man became afar off by saying, "Be it far from You, Lord; this shall not be unto You." Lastly, what said He, his Neighbour, as it were, to him drawing near? "Blessed are you, Simon, Barjona." To him afar off, as it were, and unlike, what said He? "Get behind Me, Satan." [Matthew 16:16-23] To him drawing near, "Flesh and blood," says He, "has not revealed it unto you, but My Father, which is in Heaven." His Light is shed over you, in His Light you shine. But when having become afar off, he spoke against the Lord's Passion, which should be for our Salvation, "Thou savourest not," said He, "the things that be of God, but those that be of men." One rightly placing together both of these says in a certain Psalm, "I said in my ecstasy, I am cast off from before Your Eyes." In my ecstasy, would he not have said, had he not drawn near; for ecstasy is the transporting of the mind. He poured over himself his own soul, and drew near unto God; and through some cloud and weight of the flesh being again cast down to earth, and recollecting where he had been, and seeing where he was, he said, "I am cast off from before Your Eyes." This then, "As a Neighbour, as our Brother, so I pleased Him," may He grant to be done in us; but when that is not, let even this be done, "As one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled myself."

"As a neighbor." Affection toward one's neighbor is shown in two things: namely, in delight at the good of another, and in displeasure at evil. Rom. 12: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." He shows the first when he says, "as a neighbor"; the second when he adds, "as one mourning." He says therefore, as to the first, "as a neighbor." This construction is remarkable, because these accusatives have nothing to govern them. The Gloss says that the case is used for the case, the accusative for the ablative; as if to say: I was as pleased in them as in a neighbor and in a brother. Or, according to Jerome, the word "toward" is lacking here; for Jerome has it thus: "as toward a friend and as toward my brother." Or it is said: I was so pleasing, having myself toward them as God has himself, as toward neighbors and toward brothers. For the Jews were neighbors to Christ, because he lived among them. Bar. 3: "After this he was seen on earth, and he lived among men." They were also his brothers by origin. Rom. 9: "From whom is Christ according to the flesh." Jn. 4: "Salvation is from the Jews." But Job 30: "I was a brother of serpents and a companion of ostriches." As to the second, namely displeasure at evils, he says, "as one mourning," etc. This was especially so in Christ, Lk. 19, when he wept over the city. And he says "mourning." For mourning is lamentation for the dead. Therefore a man mourns for others when he weeps over their evils which they themselves do not feel, as if dead. For sinners are dead in their sins, and do not feel their own evils; but the just grieve over them out of compassion. Jer. 9: "Who will give water to my head," etc.? Sometimes one also grieves over the evils of another which one also feels in oneself. And this is to be saddened. Hence Jerome has it more beautifully: "as a mourning mother, saddened I was bowed down," namely over them; as if to say: I grieved over them as if I were their mother. He therefore showed them this holiness of affection, through which they should have been converted; but they became more obstinate, because "they rejoiced against me and came together."

The Psalmist invokes God's aid, contrasting the hypocrisy, cunning, and malice of his enemies with his integrity and generosity. The imprecations of the first part including a brief notice of their conduct, the fuller exposition of their hypocrisy and malice in the second, and the earnest prayer for deliverance from their scornful triumph in the last, are each closed (Psa 35:9-10, Psa 35:18, Psa 35:27-28) with promises of praise for the desired relief, in which his friends will unite. The historical occasion is probably 1Sa. 24:1-22. (Psa. 35:1-28) God is invoked in the character of a warrior (Exo 15:3; Deu 32:41).

behaved--literally, "went on"--denoting his habit. heavily--or, "squalidly," his sorrowing occasioning neglect of his person. Altogether, his grief was that of one for a dearly loved relative.